is a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021.
Business laptops are typically dull computers foisted on employees en masse. But higher-end enterprise workstation notebooks sometimes get an interesting enough blend of power and features to appeal to enthusiasts. HP’s ZBook Ultra G1a is a nice example. It’s easy to see it as another gray boring-book for spendy business types, until you notice a few key specs: an AMD Strix Halo APU, lots of RAM, an OLED display, and an adequate amount of speedy ports (Thunderbolt 4, even — a rarity on AMD laptops).
I know from my time with the Asus ROG Flow Z13 and Framework Desktop that anything using AMD’s high-end Ryzen AI Max chips should make for a compelling computer. But those two are a gaming tablet and a small form factor PC, respectively. Here, you get Strix Halo and its excellent integrated graphics in a straightforward, portable 14-inch laptop — so far, the only one of its kind. That should mean great performance with solid battery life, and the graphics chops to hang with midlevel gaming laptops — all in a computer that wouldn’t draw a second glance in a stuffy office. It’s a decent Windows (or Linux) alternative to a MacBook Pro, albeit for a very high price.
The HP ZBook Ultra G1a starts around $2,100 for a modest six-core AMD Ryzen AI Max Pro 380 processor, 16GB of shared memory, and basic IPS display. Our review unit is a much higher-spec configuration with a 16-core Ryzen AI Max Plus Pro 395, 2880 x 1800 resolution 120Hz OLED touchscreen, 2TB of storage, and a whopping 128GB of shared memory, costing nearly $4,700. I often see it discounted by $1,000 or more — still expensive, but more realistic for someone seeking a MacBook Pro alternative. Having this much shared memory is mostly useful for hefty local AI inference workloads and serious dataset crunching; most people don’t need it. But with the ongoing memory shortage I’d also understand wanting to futureproof.
Component report card Screen: A
Webcam: B
Keyboard: B
Trackpad: B
Port selection: B
Speakers: B
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